A SUDDEN END TO A STRANGE CELEBRATION
Revelation 11:7-14 Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. . . . "
The "Beast that ascends out of the pit" refers to the coming Antichrist, a European who will set up headquarters first in Rome, than later in Jerusalem. While in Jerusalem the Antichrist will hear the preaching of the two witnesses. He will become so infuriated at their straightforward gospel witness that he will "make war against them" and kill them!
Their bodies will lie in the street of "the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." This is a derogatory reference to the apostate city of Jerusalem."Sodom" refers to its immorality and "Egypt" to its worldliness, while the reminder of its crucifixion of Jesus emphasizes its consistent rejection of witnesses.
For three and one-half days ungodly people from every nation on earth will gaze gleefully at the unburied bodies of God's great witnesses.
Some men who wrote commentaries on Revelation a hundred or more years ago used the most interesting arguments to discredit the world-wide viewing of the corpses. One writer questioned the truthfulness of the Book of Revelation by asking, "How can all the people in the world possibly look at the bodies of these men lying in Jerusalem?"
How are so many people able to view the two corpses? Through "Tell-star television," of course!
A SATANIC "XMAS"
The murder of the witnesses will be followed by a sort of Satanic Christmas CELEBRATION. Verse 10 says that people will celebrate and give gifts to each other. It will be a big "bonus day" for Santa!
But after three and one-half days the joy-ride will be over, for all of a sudden the bodies come to life AGAIN! Right in front of the dumbfounded onlookers the resurrected men rise up to heaven in a cloud! Then an earthquake strikes the city of Jerusalem and kills seven thousand people. Those who live are terrified, and give glory to the God of heaven (verse 13).
At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Finally many of the Jews in Jerusalem get the point about God and turn in faith to Him.
THE FINAL TRUMPET BLOWS
Revelation 11:15-18 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever." And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great – and for destroying those who destroy the earth." (NIV)
As the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, signaling the last swift and terrible judgments to begin, the people of God surrounding His throne in heaven can see the long-awaited Kingdom of God about to be established, so they burst into songs of praise.
This longing for a Kingdom of peace and prosperity on earth had been the dearest desire of all the Old Testament believers. It was primarily the hope of Judaism, promised in hundreds of passages through their prophets.
The writers of the New Testament promised their readers a union with Christ in HEAVEN, but the Old Testament saints were promised a perfectly - restored EARTH where there was peace, justice, and righteousness in the midst of a perfect environment with Messiah ruling over it. One thing we know for sure – God never breaks a promise, and this is one which He definitely plans to fulfill!
A MYSTERY CLEARED UP
It was concerning this Jewish hope of an earthly kingdom that the apostles inquired just before Jesus Christ's ascension:
Acts 1:6 b "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" (NIV)
The apostles didn't realize that the Kingdom promised to Israel had been temporarily postponed until God could call out from among the Gentiles a people who would accept His Messiah and then be eligible to partake of the blessings promised to Israel.
This new people of God, called "the Church," was a mystery in the Old Testament. The Apostles didn't seem to fully understand this until in Acts 15, James recalled a prophecy from Amos which showed that God would return to give the Kingdom to Israel at a time AFTER the Gentiles were brought into His family.
Acts 15:13-19 When they finished, James spoke up: "Brothers, listen to me. Simon has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself. The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: "`After this I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things' that have been known for ages. "It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. (NIV)
TIME FOR REWARDS Verse 18
18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. (KJV)
The believers of the Old Testament and those who become believers during the Tribulation will be resurrected and rewarded at the END of the Tribulation, when Jesus returns to the earth as King of Kings. The Church-age believers (that is, those who have believed from the Day of Pentecost until the Rapture) will already be in their new, immortal bodies and will have received their rewards at the Judgment seat of Christ in heaven sometime soon after the Rapture.
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